Sentencing in death penalty case of James Fayed postponed to November

LOS ANGELES — Sentencing in the death penalty case of former Camarillo businessman James Fayed will be postponed to November after defense attorneys filed a motion for a new trial.

After a monthlong trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court, a jury in May recommended the death penalty for 48-year-old Fayed. The same jury also found Fayed guilty of masterminding the murder-for-hire plot against his estranged wife Pamela, 44.

Fayed, dressed in a bright orange Los Angeles County jailhouse jumpsuit, appeared before Judge Kathleen A. Kennedy on Thursday and said "yes" when asked if he agreed to the postponement.

The jury also found Fayed guilty of committing the murder for financial gain, lying in wait, and conspiracy to commit murder and other overt acts.

The special allegation of lying in wait triggered the death penalty.

Defense attorneys submitted two motions Sept. 12,. They included a 48-page document that calls for a new trial and an eight-page file asking to modify the jury's death sentence recommendation.

"Before the Fayeds' bitter divorce, the family had been happy, and Jim Fayed was by the account of none other than (stepdaughter) Desiree Goudie, a good father and good family man," defense attorney Steve Meister said in the eight-page document. "The jury heard from longtime friends and colleagues of Mr. Fayed and they would be deeply hurt by Mr. Fayed's death that Mr. Fayed's life was worth sparing and that they could not connect the man they knew with the man who had been convicted of murder."

Deputy District Attorneys Alan Jackson and Eric Harmon have until Oct. 28 to respond to defense attorneys' motion for a new trial and motion to modify the jury's death penalty recommendation.

Defense attorneys Meister and Mark Werksman have until Nov. 9 to respond to prosecutors. Both sides are scheduled to appear back in Kennedy's courtroom on Nov. 17.

"The prosecution is planning to respond to each of the defenses' arguments, which will be filed in court within the first of November," Jackson said.

Pamela Fayed was stabbed 13 times and slashed to death as she walked to her car on the third floor of a parking garage at the Watt Tower in Century City on July 28, 2008.

The Fayeds were going through a divorce in which Pamela stood to gain about $1 million. The couple co-owned Goldfinger Coin & Bullion Inc., based in Camarillo, and other related businesses involved in online gold trading and money transfers.

Prosecutors said the Fayeds' business revenue was about $160 million in 2008, while the couple's net worth was about $12 million. The Fayeds owned a home in Camarillo and a sprawling 200-acre estate in Moorpark.

In the 48-page motion for a new trial, Werksman said prosecutors committed numerous errors and Fayed was wrongly convicted based on "erroneously admitted evidence," including taped conversations between Fayed and his cell mate Shawn Smith.

During the trial, prosecutors played a three-hour conversation between Fayed and Smith recorded in September 2008. In the recording, a man alleged to be Fayed said he "wanted this cleanup to happen" and asked Smith to hire a professional hit man to kill Moya.

In his request for a new trial, Werksman said admitting that tape as evidence violated hearsay rules. Defense also did not have a chance to question Smith on the stand.

"This case does not warrant the death penalty," Werksman said. "Mr. Fayed did not personally commit any act of violence against anybody and the evidence that he caused the murder of Pamela Fayed was attenuated and suspect. The introduction of the taped conversation between Mr. Fayed and the informant was a mistake that should have been remedied by the exclusion of that evidence. Nobody should be put to death based on this evidence."

Former jury foreman Jason Pritchett, who sat in the courtroom audience on Thursday, said although the three-hour tape was key evidence, other factors led jurors to vote for a guilty verdict and recommend the death penalty.

Pritchett said phone records between Fayed and Moya also pointed to the businessman as the conspirator of the plan to kill his estranged wife.

Placing Smith on stand probably would not have swayed his decision, Pritchett said.

"I think Fayed's own words damned him, not anything Shawn Smith said," Pritchett said. "If you also take away that tape, there were cellphone records that pointed to him as being the mastermind of the plot. There was clear evidence of plotting and arranging things so the killers knew where they were supposed to be. The tape was a major component, but there were other things that implicated Mr. Fayed and his eligibility for the death penalty.

"Whether he was the one or not the one who plunged the knife into Pam was not relevant. Without him, these three people would not have been in a Century City parking lot waiting to stab a woman ... they had no reason to kill her."

In the motion for a new trial, Werksman said a new trial should be granted because jurors committed misconduct, with some expressing their opinions concerning Fayed's guilt even before deliberating the case.

During the trial, Kennedy dismissed two jurors and repeatedly asked remaining jurors not to talk to each other or anyone else about the case.

"I can say with absolute certainty that, to my knowledge, nothing else happened throughout the entire case," Pritchett said. "If it did, it happened the outside of my presence."